Wellington mortgage broker got calls from clients on New Year’s Day
Craig Pope, of Pope & Co Mortgages, has hit the ground running with very little down time during a traditionally quite month.
“We’ve been extremely busy from the second of January. We’ve had a lot of enquiries coming in from repeat customers and new customers. We’ve been inundated.
“I had people contact me on New Year’s Day,” Pope added.
The brokerage has just moved into a new office and completed a brand refresh, something that’s really important to Pope. “One thing I love about our business is that it’s a good business to have a business in. I love the marketing part. I love the PR part of it.”
His goals for 2018 include improving the business’s systems and processes, and ensuring clients experience a smooth and seamless journey to approval. “We need to educate clients about the changes in lending policy, and let them know that borrowing money is no longer a given.”
“We’re certainly seeing more people building houses, more people wanting to extend and renovate their current house, and people wanting to upgrade, especially when their own house has increased in value.”
Pope said investor activity is picking up, which is probably down to the reduced LVR thresholds which are making investors relook at their portfolios – “it’s helped their positions that little bit more”, he noted.
“But it’s a bit difficult. You never quite know what you’re going to get from the different banks. We’re always trying to get on top of their policies, and how they treat one deal can be very different to how it ends up.
“It’s a little bit difficult trying to work out how they’ll approach some deals. It just means we need to take a lot more care these days before we submit loans to banks – and that can sometimes slow down the process, so we need to train clients to get all that information to us before we can submit (the application). We don’t want to send half-completed applications to the banks, we want to improve the chance of approval.
“We need readjust people’s expectation because the lending world has changed so much. Just with a simple top up, we need to explain to people that it’s not a given, just because they have a lot of equity (in their home) doesn’t mean they’ll necessarily get it.
He added that banks are really hung up on responsible lending now – “they can be hot one minute and cold the next.”
“You need to have more than one solutions up your sleeve – so it’s keep things interesting.”
Pope came seventh in NZ Adviser’s inaugural brokers rankings last year, which were announced in November. Read his profile here.
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“We’ve been extremely busy from the second of January. We’ve had a lot of enquiries coming in from repeat customers and new customers. We’ve been inundated.
“I had people contact me on New Year’s Day,” Pope added.
The brokerage has just moved into a new office and completed a brand refresh, something that’s really important to Pope. “One thing I love about our business is that it’s a good business to have a business in. I love the marketing part. I love the PR part of it.”
His goals for 2018 include improving the business’s systems and processes, and ensuring clients experience a smooth and seamless journey to approval. “We need to educate clients about the changes in lending policy, and let them know that borrowing money is no longer a given.”
“We’re certainly seeing more people building houses, more people wanting to extend and renovate their current house, and people wanting to upgrade, especially when their own house has increased in value.”
Pope said investor activity is picking up, which is probably down to the reduced LVR thresholds which are making investors relook at their portfolios – “it’s helped their positions that little bit more”, he noted.
“But it’s a bit difficult. You never quite know what you’re going to get from the different banks. We’re always trying to get on top of their policies, and how they treat one deal can be very different to how it ends up.
“It’s a little bit difficult trying to work out how they’ll approach some deals. It just means we need to take a lot more care these days before we submit loans to banks – and that can sometimes slow down the process, so we need to train clients to get all that information to us before we can submit (the application). We don’t want to send half-completed applications to the banks, we want to improve the chance of approval.
“We need readjust people’s expectation because the lending world has changed so much. Just with a simple top up, we need to explain to people that it’s not a given, just because they have a lot of equity (in their home) doesn’t mean they’ll necessarily get it.
He added that banks are really hung up on responsible lending now – “they can be hot one minute and cold the next.”
“You need to have more than one solutions up your sleeve – so it’s keep things interesting.”
Pope came seventh in NZ Adviser’s inaugural brokers rankings last year, which were announced in November. Read his profile here.
Related stories:
It’s good getting deals across the line, broker
Mortgage bot on tinder
